It was a beautiful day (at sea) and as you say it was very good sailing weather. We saw lots of yachts and I said to Jane wouldn't it be funny if Timo and Leena sailed past. We waved at every yacht that passed our ship just in case it was you but nobody waved back, perhaps they thought it was best to ignore the two mad English people waving furiously from a Finnlines ferry .....

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What should have been the easiest days riding turned into a real nightmare. We expected bad weather when we landed in Sweden but the sky didn't look too threatening and it was actually dry for the first five miles, then it started to spit so we stopped and put our waterproofs on. We're glad we did because during the next 75 miles to Sodertalje where we're staying tonight, we endured downpour after downpour. We've rarely seen rain like it, traffic slowed to a snails pace and many sections of road became flooded. Combined with the back end of the Stockholm area rush hour it didn't make for a very pleasant riding experience. The Ulysses developed a misfire during the heaviest of the rain but Jane and Barney just sailed (pun intended) through. Those two have got balls .....

Kev - please send Alpinestars 365 gloves (in large and small) urgently, we'll pay you when we get back

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That's more like it, 312 miles today on dry roads and the sun's come out again, yay! Not sure how long it'll last though, I think we'll see more rain before we get to Europort Rotterdam late Sunday afternoon.

Following yesterdays downpours Barney developed 'wonky winkers' syndrome, as Jane calls it. He's had it before following very bad weather. We've had to strip the left hand switch unit apart and clean the contacts, all's well now. Other than that we've done the fourth and final engine oil check, the Ulysses was fine but Barney needed a top up. He's now rolled over 106,000 miles and still has the original rings and valves fitted so his oil consumption has increased, but not excessively so.

Tonight we're in Klippan, 57 miles north of Malmo. Total mileage so far is 3727.

We had planned to meet Gunter early this afternoon when we got off the ferry from Denmark to Germany so we were up with the lark, or whatever the Swedish is for lark, and set off at 7.15am. We had 180 miles to cover before catching the ferry but only 20 miles into the journey, on a slip road between the E4 and E6/E20, Barney came to a grinding halt. When we're riding together I'm in the habit of glancing in my mirrors every 5 to 10 seconds to check that Jane is OK so I noticed straight away that she had slowed down for some reason. Luckily I hadn't got too far down the slip road so was able to pull over before entering the motorway. The slip road was curved so I didn't have a clear line of sight, I thought Jane had pulled over to the side but as I walked to where they'd stopped I realised they were stuck in the middle of the slip road. With it being early there wasn't much traffic about but it was one of those heart stopping moments when I saw them both. Jane had the presence of mind to switch her hazard lights on but was helpless because she couldn't paddle Barney to safety.

Just as I reached them a Swedish driver stopped to offer assistance but Barney was stuck solid. At first I thought it was a transmission failure but it soon became apparent that his rear brake had seized. With the drivers help we wheeled Barney to the side by lifting his back end. After thanking the driver for his help I walked back down the slip road to fetch the Ulysses.

The rear brake caliper is located under the swinging arm out of sight, right in the line of fire from water and dirt so it's prone to corrosion if you don't keep everything well copper slipped. I can only assume that the recent very bad weather we've ridden through had washed all the grease out causing the inboard pad to stick on it's sliding pin. I checked the pads and greased the caliper before we set off on this trip but 4,000 miles in 2 weeks in very mixed conditions have clearly taken their toll. I managed to remove the caliper and pulled the pads and pin out, cleaned all the parts and greased them up. You never know what to take on a big tour but a small tube of copper slip sure comes in handy.

Sorting this problem out delayed us by over two hours so we sent Gunter a couple of text messages to let him know what was happening. When we finally got back on the road we still had 160 miles to do so we clearly weren't going to catch one of the midday ferries as we'd hoped. Just to add to the drama as we approached the ferry terminal in Rodby, Denmark we got stuck in a 6 mile traffic jam on a dual carriageway leading to the port. It was very difficult to filter through but eventually we made it to the toll booths to catch the 3.00pm ferry, arriving in Puttgarden, Germany around 3.45pm. So after all that we missed meeting Gunter ....

Handy tip, if you're going to breakdown make sure you do it on a sunny and warm day, it makes things so much easier.

We're now in Heidenau, Germany as planned. This is a beautiful little village and the hotel is first rate. We celebrated finally reaching today's destination with a nice cold beer.

Mileage today was 304, total = 4031.

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That was a really some bad luck. Unfortunately I was a bit in a hurry, because I had to return to Cologne that day, to participate in my godmothers birthday party, and had to leave Puttgarden so early. But, anyway, I have never been there before, therefore I had a pleasant ride (except those traffic congestions around Hamburg and Lübeck) to a new spot. School holiday started in large parts of Germany, so traffic was bumper to bumper the last 10 miles with no chance to pass and cars where queueing for at least another mile before the ticket booths. My (naive) idea to board and wait in Rodby vanished immediately

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It's a pity we missed, but I am glad to hear that everything turned out well, and you reached your hotel safely.

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_________________"It is often said that before you die your life passes before your eyes. It is in fact true. It's called living."Terry Pratchett

We made it to Europort Rotterdam without further drama, covering 313 miles today in mixed weather. Although we still have to get home (a mere 65 miles) now that we're sat on the good ship 'Pride of Rotterdam' enjoying a cold beer we feel as though we've successfully completed this year's UKBEG Buell (and Guzzi ) Challenge. Our total mileage will be 4409.

We won't know exactly how much we've raised for Em's Charity for another 2 or 3 weeks but we expect to reach £1100 to £1200.

We've had an absolute ball. Sure there's been a few lows but we've also had many highs.

Yay! We made it, Jane posing in front of the Pride of Rotterdam:

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